Recommended by Ricardo Soltero-Brown

Christian Flynn is a master craftsman and 'crisis' is another exemplary script using subtext, human behavior, and structure to mount stakes and tension. Flynn is able to achieve perfect synthesis of plot, circumstance, and characterization particular to any genre. This is an airtight thriller about uncertain dreams and certain means to achieve them, about constantly running forward while being chased by mysterious forces, about taking control of your life. Variously nerve-racking and hysterical.

Positively pulsing with the breath of youth in its dialogue, conflicts, and philosophies, Scott Cantrell's 'Devil's Triangle' feels like it was written by its own characters, providing an admirable sense of authenticity. The character of Bill is an exceptionally drawn sample of deeply insecure, toxic masculinity. There is a tension over Jake's coming out, whether it be done on his own or with sponsoring, and the killing of a balance being achieved is shocking and devastating. An extreme tragedy.

A husband's preparing for his child's birth reaches farcical lengths, providing the opening of Scott Cantrell's 'Time of Birth' with a heartening charm, but it is soon uprooted by the pregnant wife's pragmatism - also about to reach an abnormal extent. The play hurls optimism against pessimism by embattling gender stereotypes, ad hominem attacks, and an ultimate taboo. A provocation of a play, it propels a marriage in extremis to proportions of Greek myth in order to find the edge of one's love.

Our interrelation to the world and people in it is essentially what existence boils down to. Daniel Prillaman's 'Bereavement Leave' is a pitch-black satire of workplace operations as life, the circadian imminence of death, and the weight of making the world go round. One cannot avoid the Kafkaesque dealings we endure in this eternal puzzle for peace, for if you did isn't that just another form of decease? Which is the greater mystery, living or dying? Solemn themes synergize with cunning comedy.

Comfortably akin to Didi & Gogo/Ben & Gus/Rosencrantz & Guildenstern: the duo Tobin & Asher are tasked with the absurd. Nevertheless, achieve it they must, determining how along the way, and damn any complications. Conceivably a metaphor for how preciously we treat art, what is deemed to be art, and art's relationship with class; Daniel Prillaman's 'Art Duty' is, like art, a persistent search for truth, for the genuine, the authentic - mainly from its characters, no matter how taboo or unseemly.

A study into what makes us human, Vince Gatton's 'Double Helix' investigates behavior and growth, or: evolution. For parents/guardians there is a responsibility to protect their young, which eventually becomes an obstacle to their development and individuality. There's a trauma that occurs in sheltered children suddenly set out into the world, they will seek to make sense of it in order to rebuild a state of safety or to dominate it. The world is not safe nor can you dominate it. Top-notch play.

Nora Louise Syran's 'The Gold Rush' is another fine example of her abilities as a teaching artist. Imbued with historical references, period vernacular, and choreographed song, the script is not without the pleasures of clear characterizations either, making for a complete theatrical experience. A great deal of the dramatic tension comes from the melting pot that is the setting: a Hotel/Saloon crawling with personalities (and temperaments) from all walks of life. A clever metaphor for this land.

They say artists are without country, without political party, so, what do you get if you add the radicalism and rebelliousness of youth to that mix? The character of Jaeda is one smart, implacable cookie, unwilling to serve or be used by any establishment, any institution, anyone. The new generation always baffles the current one, and it is this relationship that John Minigan's play, 'Sarai's Knife', gets absolutely right. Art and protest are both so personal an act, they might be a cryptogram.

On an isolated island an ultra-conservative evangelical cult, which keeps its followers adhering to strict dogma that ultimately consigns them to ignorance of the human condition, is upended when a stranger washes ashore. What transpires among the already doubtful cult-members is the ultimate test of faith. Benjamin Peel's 'Children of God' addresses the extremities of celibacy, gender segregation, personality worship, and mass psychogenic illness in this slow burn play. Haunting and disturbing.

Kara Emily Krantz's 'inValidated' is a mesmerizing real-time experiment and intimate mission to vindicate Katherine's thoughts and feelings within a male-dominated family dynamic that easily and readily dismisses them. Reminiscent of Caryl Churchill's 'Heart's Desire' with its (re)attempts to find a happy medium among myriad forces vying for dominance. A rousing tale of perseverance, tense with anticipation, teasing endless possibilities for (mis)understanding, one cheers Katherine's expression.